that cat appears to have antennae. which would confirm some things i suspect about cats.

as for gay guy - he may be following the path of a lot of characters, i.e., starting as a stereotyped bit player and then developing more personality as he gets more screen time. we can hope.

Maybe it's one of those fuckers from Saturn (click for the artist's site)

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft wrote:

“It was one of the army’s outposts, stationed on the highest of the mountains to watch the one foe which Earth’s catsfear; the very large and peculiar cats from Saturn, who for some reason have not been oblivious of the charm of our moon’s dark side. They are leagued by treaty with the evil toad-things, and are notoriously hostile to our earthly cats; so that at this juncture a meeting would have been a somewhat grave matter.”

_________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

I was explaining why I'm giving the character a pass for now. Other people don't have to, but Felgraf asked so I offered my rationale. I don't want my opinion to be the last word on the subject.

Ok, fair enough. My main point of contention was that I had interpreted "give a pass" to mean "find to be as good or better than my general lowered-by-cynicism expectations for portrayals of gays in 2013", but now it sounds like it actually meant something more like "terrible, but not terrible enough to make me quit reading SinFest in protest".

Ah, okay, that makes sense now. I meant 'give a pass' like people do with friends and relatives - folks who you know mean well and you care about them because the rest of your relationship is important, but if they were someone else you didn't know as well you'd probably lay in to them (Or do a more thorough job of explaining things.) And there are two levels of that - the first being the person who means well but doesn't get it no matter how much you explain, and the second being someone who is honestly trying but needs some support while they do so.

As an example in my own life, I have changed my name at work, and came out as trans quite awhile before that. (Mostly because no one asked me questions about it, which I'd never had happen at a job before, so I had to do something more official). Because of other conversations I've had with coworkers and gossip passed along to me, I know that everyone is trying really hard. People do mess up, though. If it were malicious I would take steps to correct it. But since it is an honest mistake people are having, I just let them work on correcting themselves, and I share anecdotes to help them feel better if they have trouble just apologizing and moving on. And then there are some nice people I know who just don't understand or remember and never will. There's no point in trying to explain or berate them, so I just let it go in their case.

So while I think that it is important to get pronouns/names/etc correct, and I know how deeply it hurts some people even if those around them are making sincerely honest mistakes, I give those who are trying and making progress or who can't make progress a pass.

I should also note I live with two other trans people, one gay and one bi, and I have lots of queer friends. We're all from different parts of the country and socio-economic backgrounds. After hearing about everyone's opinions and the experiences that have formed them, I've reached an understanding that people can reach a whole lot of different conclusions and that's okay._________________[Stripeypants has enabled lurk mode.]

I dare one of you to make this joke even gayer than it already is:
[
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip, and after finishing their dinner they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" exclaims Watson.

"And what do you deduce from that?"

Watson ponders for a minute. "Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?"